a/n: sorry it took so long, stupid school, I'll try and update faster.

disclaimer: I own nothing, what a shock.

Chapter 5: Confrontation

This is the hardest story,
That I've ever told,
No hope or love or glory,
Happy endings, gone for ever more

Casey and Derek braced themselves as they walked into the room. They saw Marti sitting on the table in the room. She immediately brightened when she saw Casey and especially Derek. She leaped off the table and grabbed both of them into a group hug.

"Hey Smarti, I'm so glad that you are alright," Derek said.

"Smerek it's horrible, I can't remember. I remember getting into the car, Nora said goodbye to Aunt Fiona and then got into the car. Daddy started the car and we were coming back home. The next thing I know, I'm in this room and someone is asking me questions. I'm scared, why can't I remember," Marti said. She was so scared that she was separated from her family. She didn't cry though, she was too occupied to cry but now that Casey and Derek were here, she knew that they were going to take care of everything and that's when she allowed herself to cry.

"It's okay, everything is going to be alright," Derek said, pulling Marti into another hug. Casey tried blinking back the tears that stung her eyes. She wondered what she would have done if Derek wasn't with her, if Derek left. She knew she wouldn't be able to go on without him, not after this. She was so happy that even though he didn't know that everything was going to be alright, he still made it seem that way.

"Derek what happened? They won't tell me anything, where's daddy, Nora, Edwin, and Lizzie?" Marti asked. Derek didn't know what do say so Casey decided to at least help a little bit, after all, Derek was doing all the work.

"Marti, you were in a car accident. We don't know how bad everyone is, they're still doing tests," Casey said. Marti nodded, she was glad that Casey gave her the straight answer, she hated how everyone always treated her as a baby since she was the youngest. Marti didn't get a chance to respond though because her doctor walked into the room.

"Oh you must be Marti's family. I'm Dr. Gomery," the woman said.

"Hello, I'm Casey and this is my stepbrother Derek," Casey said as they shook hands.

"Alright, I'm sure you want to know about Marti's condition," Dr. Gomery said once they were through with introductions. "Marti seems to suffer from temporary memory loss, caused by the shock of the collision-"

"Will she get it back, her memory, I mean," Derek asked.

"That's hard to say, it could come to her or she may never get it back. I think though there is a very good possibility that she will get it back, she can already remember the conversation that her two older siblings were in when they left their destination, she couldn't do that a half hour ago." Her pager then went off and she smiled.

"That was Edwin Venturi's doctor; his tests are done so you can see him. Everything is fine; he luckily is walking away with just a few scratches. You can take Marti, she doesn't seem to be suffering anything else besides the temporary memory loss which I can do nothing for. She will either get it back on her own or not at all. Would you like me to take you to Edwin Venturi's room?"

They all nodded. Dr. Gomery turned and walked through the doors, Casey followed her. Marti grabbed Derek's hand, something that she told him that she was too old to do about a month ago. She started walking, pulling him along, which wasn't hard because he just wanted to know that everyone was alright and get out of the hospital.

Casey didn't jolt awake when her alarm clock went off, bringing her out of her dream world. She expected that she would have another dream, it seemed like she was going to relive that day until her subconscious wanted to stop. She figured it wasn't going to be anytime soon since she felt so guilty. She knew she shouldn't have yelled at Derek, losing control of the situation.

As much as it hurt her to see Derek, she knew it hurt her family even more to know that they weren't going to see him again. No matter how hard they tried to hide it, she saw it. They wanted to see Derek; they wanted to repair the unique broken bond that they once had with him. The bond Lizzie had when talking to Derek, being the perfect tomboy, giving Derek a run for his money in sports. The bond Edwin had when wanting advice and knowledge about the female mind, hoping that Derek would have the answer, and Marti, who was and always will be Derek's Smarti. She brought out the best in him, showed his vulnerability, showed Casey how much she truly loved him.

She knew that they were all trying to be strong, pretending that they never wanted to see him again, for her sake. She knew it was a huge lie but the truth was she didn't want to fix it. She was tired of fixing things, she wanted someone else to fix it but she knew Derek and Faith were certainly not going to call anytime soon, not after yesterday. Now Casey had to make the choice, whether to fix the situation, for the sake of her family or to be selfish and not do anything.

"There you are, jeeze don't you think you get enough exercise, why are you in here pacing?" Mark said to Casey, coming into her classroom with Rachel behind him.

They always met in Rachel's classroom, mostly because it was the closest one to the front entrance of the school. This was why Mark and Rachel came looking for Casey. She always met with them, except when she was sick but she always called at least one of them so that they would know not to buy her coffee. They began to worry when she didn't show up at the time that she always did. She always came around the same time everyday because she drove Marti to school first.

"What are you doing in here?" Rachel asked, but Casey didn't seem to hear them, she was still pacing the length of the classroom.

"Hello, earth to Casey!" Mark said, waving a hand in front of her face but she didn't seem to notice. "Look there's Derek!" he said, making Casey look up, hearing the name Derek. She looked at her two friends, both giving her the what-the-hell look.

"When did you guys get here?" she asked, immediately grabbing a coffee cup.

"We should be asking you that question, how did the dinner go?" Rachel asked. Casey rolled her eyes. "That bad," Rachel said, sucking in some air, afraid that Casey was going to tell them that she finally broke and killed her stepbrother.

"Well, what part do you think is worse? My family giving Derek the cold shoulder, and also his girlfriend, or the part where I basically told Derek that I still loved him, with his girlfriend hearing me say it or how about the part when I realized that my family wants to see Derek again, just too afraid to tell me," Casey said, beginning to pace again.

"Wow, that is bad," Mark said, grabbing his wallet and handing money to Rachel.

Casey looked at both of them and rolled her eyes. "Now what did you two bet on?" she asked.

"Whether you would yell at Derek or Faith," Mark said. "I can't believe you yelled at Derek instead of Faith, she's the one who has your man," Mark continued.

"He's not my man," Casey denied, rolling her eyes.

"Not now," he muttered under his breath.

"So what are you going to do?" Rachel questioned.

"I don't know, should I tell Derek to see Lizzie, Edwin, and Marti or should I just be selfish and not do anything?" Casey asked.

"Well, we know what you want to do; the question is what will you do?" Rachel said. Casey glared at her, Rachel's father was a therapist and it was surprising that Rachel didn't follow in his footsteps, she totally had that therapist voice. Just then the bell rang, breaking the conversation but before Rachel and Mark left, Casey called out to them, more to convince herself then them.

"I'm not going to fix it, not this time. I can't do it anymore," she said. Mark and Rachel nodded, not saying anything because they knew it was no use, instead when they stepped out into the hallway, they placed bets for how long it will take Casey to fix things.

---

"Are we going to see Faith and Derek again?" Zachie asked Casey as they drove home.

"Did you like them?" Casey asked him back, trying to work her way around the question.

"Ya!" he said, all excited.

Casey looked at him; she remembered when she was his age, always saw the world at its best. She pitied him a bit, soon he was going to watch the news, read the paper and realize the world isn't all sunshine and rainbows and soon he was going to learn why he doesn't have a mommy. Casey got good in lying though, she learned how to do it when Derek left, claiming that she was fine and she perfected it when Zachie asked why he didn't have a mommy like everyone else in his class.

"Are we going to see them again?" he asked her.

"Maybe," Casey said, okay, so she was lying, it was a no but she wasn't going to tell him that or he would start to ask questions.

"That's a no isn't it," Zachie replied.

"It's a maybe," Casey said back, turning into the driveway and shutting off the engine. Zachie slumped in the back seat, obviously pouting. "Don't be like that, everything happens for a reason," Casey said. Zachie still looked angry and ran out of the car, hiding behind a tree. "Zachie," she called, getting out of the car and following him, she needed to bring him inside so that she could make dinner then get to her second job, teaching dance.

As she went to the tree though, she didn't see him behind it and before she could turn around she felt something cold hit the back of her neck. She realized that it was a snowball. She turned around and saw Zachie, smiling triumphantly.

"Oh you little," she said, grabbing snow of her own and throwing it at him.

Soon Lizzie, Edwin, and Marti came out and all five of them were throwing snowballs at each other. Once they stopped, all of them too tired to throw any more snow, all panting and laughing Casey realized something. That in better or worse, this was her family and she should try her best to give them everything they needed and they needed Derek, no matter how much they tried to deny it. They needed him. Casey stood up and looked at them.

"Damn it," she muttered. All of them looked at her questioningly. "Can you guys handle dinner on your own, I have to go make a stop somewhere before I go to work," Casey said to them.

They nodded still a bit confused. Casey ran into the house, to get her bag that had her dance clothes, dance shoes and cds then got back into her car and drove. She knew where she was going, Faith had told them where she and Derek were working for the week yesterday, trying to bring up a conversation.

She parked and went into the building without stopping. She knew if she stopped, she would think too much about the situation and not want to go through with it. She took the elevator to the fifth floor and asked someone where Derek Venturi was. They pointed to an office and said that he just got out of a meeting and he was in there. Casey thanked the person, walked to the closed door and knocked. She heard Derek inside say come in and she barged in and started talking before Derek could register what happened.

"You can't do this anymore," she said, leaning over his desk, pointing her finger in his face.

"Do what? Work?" he asked.

"Let me finish," she said not moving her body. "You can't just pretend that you don't have a family because newsflash Derek, you do and they miss you so much. They want to see you; they just don't know it yet. So you are going to take them out tomorrow, somewhere, anywhere. Take them to dinner and a movie, show them your business world, I don't care, just see them," Casey said. "Come to the house at five, don't be late."

She then stopped talking, stood upright, fixed her clothes then walked out of the office. She heard Derek call after her and she moved from her brisk walk to a slight jog. She saw the elevator and pressed the button, praying that she didn't have to talk to Derek. The doors opened and she walked in, pressing the button to close the elevator doors but she wasn't quick enough, Derek slid in just as the doors were closing.

"I don't want to talk to you anymore," Casey said, turning her body to face the wall.

"So what, you barge into my office, giving me instructions, demanding that I follow them and then leave without letting me say anything!" Derek yelled, getting hysterical.

"I didn't barge in, I knocked and you did say something," she said, getting equally hysterical. "And I have never asked anything from you these past 6 years. Now when I ask you to do this one thing, for our family, you have the nerve to say that I'm demanding. Just come tomorrow and take them somewhere, at least try and repair the relationships that you have destroyed," she said. Then the doors opened and she stepped out. "See you tomorrow Derek," she said, as the doors closed, no allowing Derek to respond.

Derek sighed, leaning his head against the elevator wall as it went back up. He was glad that Casey demanded him to take his family out, he desperately wanted things to go back to normal, but then again what was normal anymore? He wasn't sure. He lifted his head when the elevator dinged. He walked out and was immediately ambushed by Faith with questions.

"I heard that Casey came, what was she doing here? She didn't yell at you did she? Do you want me to call security and make sure she can't come in again?" Faith asked, one question after another, not allowing him to speak. "Derek?" she asked but he didn't respond, he was looking out into space instead of facing her. "Derek what was Casey doing here?" she asked again. Derek turned to her, as if hearing her for the first time.

"I forgot my scarf and she was just returning it," Derek lied. For some reason he couldn't bring himself to tell his girlfriend about the conversation he and Casey had. He didn't want her to know. Derek started walking away from Faith and towards his office. He shut his door once he was inside. He couldn't help but smile, for some reason he felt like everything was going to be fixed, that for once everything would return back to normal.

Faith stayed where she was, mouth dropped, shocked at the scene she just saw. Derek openly lied to her, and not because he was embarrassed about his past. He promised her no more secrets and yet here he was, about six hours later, keeping something from her. She had a funny feeling that it involved Casey and wasn't sure what to do. She was not the kind of girl that was dumped for another girl, she was usually the girl guys dumped their girlfriends for, every since high school. She was the head cheerleader, dating the hockey star, then in university, she dated a professor (who was married) but that was just a small detail. Then she got a job as an assistant and was now dating her boss who she planned to marry. She was going to get Derek to the chapel, and no one was going to stand in her way, not even martyr Casey.

---

Casey walked back into her house after work. Zachie was already asleep, Marti was watching t.v., and Edwin and Lizzie were still doing homework. Casey looked at Marti, watching one of her favorite shows; she wasn't sure which one though. Marti was able to watch so many shows because all she had was school and a part-time job. Casey wished that she could watch t.v. sometimes but when she did, she usually felt guilty that she wasn't doing something productive and stopped watching it.

"How was work?" Marti asked her, looking away from the t.v., obviously commercial.

"It was good, how was yours?" Casey asked back, shrugging off her jacket and taking off her shoes.

"It was fine, hey, where did you go before you went to work?" she asked.

"I went to see Derek, he's coming to take all of you out tomorrow," Casey said matter of factly, walking up the stairs to her room. Marti followed her, completely dumbfounded at what Casey just said.

"What do you mean you went to go see Derek?" Marti cried, causing Edwin and Lizzie to come out of their rooms.

"I drove to where he worked and saw him," Casey said slowly.

"You went to go see Derek? Why?" Edwin asked.

"Apparently he is taking us out tomorrow, Casey made a play date for us," Marti said.

"Why?" Lizzie asked. Edwin and Lizzie were too shocked to be angry but Marti wasn't, she was angry at Casey. She didn't want to see Derek, he was a jerk in her books.

"Ya, why?" Marti asked.

"Because you guys should have an older brother, even if it's one that you hate, now if you excuse me, I'm going to bed because it's late," Casey said walking into her room and shutting the door.

"This isn't over! I'm going to make him the most miserable man tomorrow!" Marti shouted.

"Good," Casey called through the door. Marti groaned and walked back downstairs as the middle children stared at each other.

"I believe this calls for observation," Edwin said to Lizzie.

"Don't you mean spying, and jeeze Edwin, you're an adult and a parent, act like one," she replied, rolling her eyes.

"So are you in?" he asked.

Lizzie sighed. "Did you hear what I said?"

"Ya, well are you?" he asked again.

"Ya, I'm in," she said, following Edwin into his room to go and try to find that binder that they used for research years ago.

Reviews are always welcome!